The rising cost of higher education has led to increased tuition costs for students and their families, forcing more students to secure larger amounts of debt to finance their educational pursuits. Although scholars have explored how student loan debt accumulation influences higher education persistence and graduation, an unexplored area of higher…

Approximately 30% of students who enter the postsecondary education system do so through 2-year colleges. The majority of these students intend to earn a bachelor's degree, but most leave college before earning a diploma from a 4-year institution. The discrepancy between bachelor's degree aspirations and degree attainment rates of students who…

The authors examined three motivational factors (first-year grade expectations, present-focused time perspective, and future-focused time perspective) as predictors of achievement and retention outcomes for students (N = 844) in their first semester at a predominately Hispanic-serving community college, accounting for student background…

Due to the low success of traditional, postsecondary remediation mathematics, The Maryland Mathematics Reform Initiative First in the World Grant (MMRI-FITW) sought to develop and implement a statistics pathway in 2- and 4-year institutions as an alternative to traditional algebra-based math, to accelerate developmental mathematics students'…

This study examines two 5-year longitudinal data sets of community college students (n = 595 and n = 593) to explore factors associated with successful outcomes in developmental mathematics. Logistic regression models consider the role of demographic factors, course format, and student support structures on the likelihood of a student completing…

Guided by the notion of academic momentum, this study drew data from longitudinal transcript records at a large public 4-year research university and examined factors that specifically contribute to community college transfer students' academic momentum. It also explored how early academic momentum along with students' sociodemographic…

The purpose of this study was to develop a retention model specific to the 2-year college environment using factors not typically combined with the study of student retention. The study operationalized factors representing the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness combined with elements of Bean and Metzner's…

The "Personal Background Preparation Survey" (PBPS) identifies students at risk for academic nonadvancement. Uniquely, the PBPS produces individualized reports making evidence-based risk-specific recommendations prescribing interventions targeting students' empirically identified risk indicators. At a large southwestern health sciences…

Aligned with the American Association of Community College's 21st Century Initiative for community college completion, coaching has emerged in higher education as a promising practice for student support. Although hundreds of community colleges have implemented coaching programs, few studies have explored the practice of coaching and its…

Transfer from one institution to another is increasingly common for students during the course of their higher education careers. The number of students moving from community colleges to four-year universities continues to rise. Transfer students report experiences of alienation, isolation, and other personal and academic challenges. To address…

Research has shown that academic momentum is a key factor in degree completion for students attending 4-year institutions. The characteristics of 2-year students (also called community college students) often lead them to engage in behaviors contrary to the theory of academic momentum, and these behaviors theoretically reduce their likelihood of…

Using intrusive advising principles and the four Cs framework, the Strong-Start Program was developed and implemented to improve student outcomes in developmental math, reading, and writing courses. An intrusive advising protocol was used to help students recognize, adopt, and engage in the behaviors needed to complete instructor-assigned…

The purpose of this multisite case study was to understand students' experiences of academic services and policies at community colleges (CCs) in India and how they perceived these experiences as impacting their success in college. Participants included 19 students from four CCs across diverse geographical locations in India who agreed to respond…

A plethora of research spanning several decades has attempted to understand predictors of retention and graduation in undergraduate bachelor's degree programs. The topic is no less important today, as larger and larger swaths of the American population attend college each year. Studies have demonstrated that key demographic variables, indicators…

Given that multiple forms of oppression are endemic to higher education, strategies intended to retain queer and trans college students should mirror the strategies of survival and thriving found within queer and trans communities. Fostering and bolstering connections, community, and kinship among queer and trans college students through a lens of…